The best codec for archiving timelapses

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georgekg

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The best codec for archiving timelapses

PostSun Oct 24, 2021 9:36 am

I have a large number of timelapses in jpg that need to be converted to video for later use. Right now I must lower the occupied space on the hard drive, so I need to convert all those series of jpegs to videos that will be used later for editing and color grading. What would be the best codec that support custom frame size?
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Andy Mees

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Re: The best codec for archiving timelapses

PostSun Oct 24, 2021 10:23 am

If you're on a Mac, a likely good option will be one of the ProRes flavours, eg 422 or 422 HQ.
If you're on a PC then maybe look at Cineform or Grass Valley HQ/HQX.
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2D3D4K

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Re: The best codec for archiving timelapses

PostSun Oct 24, 2021 1:03 pm

Definitely agree with previous post. For PC Grass Valley HQX is the way to go.

For future reference, unless you don't have the capability on the camera you're using, shoot all time lapse in RAW, not JPEG. Then use a program like Capture One Pro, or Adobe Lightroom, to do initial grade and export as Photoshop, or TIFF. These can be brought into Resolve, put in sequence, and exported. You can then trash the large still images if you want. But, much better results from shooting RAW.
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georgekg

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Re: The best codec for archiving timelapses

PostSun Oct 24, 2021 4:28 pm

2D3D4K wrote:....
For future reference, unless you don't have the capability on the camera you're using, shoot all time lapse in RAW, not JPEG...


I know what you are saying, but time lapses are from my customer so the only thing I can do right now is to try to minimize occupied space on my hard drives. Grass Valley gives me even bigger files than original jpgs are, so I have to figure out some compromise. I'll maybe do a color grading on original stills and then compress it to H.265 for later editing... I know, that way I'll have much more work to do, because I won't use all time lapses in editing process (right now I don't know which one will be used and which one won't) and edited time lapses will be much shorter than original ones, but this is the only way I can solve this problem with occupied space.
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Uli Plank

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Re: The best codec for archiving timelapses

PostSun Oct 24, 2021 5:13 pm

I'd disadvise using H.265 for further editing if your machine is not very capable and the H.265 is 10 bit 4:2:2.
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